1. Fields of the Invention
The invention relates generally to an apparatus and method of precisely determining the actual position and attitude of a host vehicle operating on a select course or path, such as, a highspeed highway and/or in congested traffic, or an aircraft in a landing pattern, and of multiple moving or fixed targets which represent potential collision hazards with a host vehicle, and, then, generating and displaying warning signals and avoidance maneuvers to avoid the collision and, in the absence of effective timely action by the host operator, automatically controlling the host vehicle to avoid the collisions or minimize any injuries and damage therefrom. More particularly, the invention relates to the use of a Global Positioning System ("GPS"), and a differential GPS ("DGPS") supplemented by a Local or Psuedolite Positioning System ("LPS" or "Psuedolite") as the primary host vehicle and target locating system with centimeter accuracy, further supplemented by any of a plurality of conventional all-weather and/or visual scanners and digital computer systems to detect, recognize, track and predict the collision impact point of all relevant potential targets, including other vehicles, fixed geographical obstructions, pedestrians and the like. More particularly, the invention further relates to multiple antennae, GPS determined vehicle attitude for use in generating automobile-on-the-highway, multiple target relative location, and collision avoidance warnings and maneuvers. More particularly, the invention further relates to an inter-vehicle and vehicle to base or satellite communication system for transmitting GPS, DGPS, and LPS position data, as well as, relevant target data to other vehicles and central or local control centers for information and control action. More particularly, the present invention still further relates to the use of neural networks and fuzzy logic rule sets for generating and developing optimal and prioritized warning and avoidance maneuvers, and generating related optimally coordinated control signals for all relevant host automobile control systems which are then automatically implemented, subject to operator intervention and override, to avoid collisions or to optimize prevention of injury or damage.
2. Discussion of Background and Prior Art
a. General
Automobile accidents are one of the most serious problems faced by our society, both in terms of personal deaths and injuries, and in financial losses suffered as a result of accidents. Human suffering caused by death or injury from such accidents is immense. In addition, the costs of medical treatment, permanent injury to accident victims resulting in loss of life opportunities, and financial losses resulting from damage to automobiles and other valuable objects or structures involved in such accidents are staggering. Providing improved systems and methods to minimize such personal and financial losses is an urgent and very important problem deserving the highest possible priority. Increasing populations and increased use of automobiles worldwide with resulting increased congestion on our highways and roadways makes development of improved control and warning systems for collision avoidance even more important. While many advances have been made in vehicle safety, including, for example, the use of seatbelts, airbags and more rigid and safer automobile body structures, much room for improvement exists in automotive systems, in general, and in automobile-on-the-highway warning and control systems, in particular.
b. Positioning Self and Multiple Targets by GPS
For example, impressive advances have been made in various areas of technology that can be applied to the automotive collision avoidance and warning system problem. One dynamic area of rapid technological development exists today in the form of GPS satellite location and tracking systems. Many patents have been issued for various applications of GPS for locating and tracking objects, and for navigation purposes. Also, such GPS systems have been augmented with earthbound pseudo-satellite ("Pseudolite") systems and methods that provide centimeter accuracy with real time, kinematic positioning information for use in aircraft landing systems. Various configurations of GPS-based tracking and communication systems and methods, including Pseudolite systems and methods, are described in the following documents, each of which is incorporated in its entirety herein by reference: Logsdon, Tom, The Navstar Global Positioning System, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York (1992), ISBN 0-422-01040-0; Leick, Alfred, GPS Satellite Surveying, John Wiley & Sons, New York (1990), ISBN 0-471-81990-5; Hurn, Jeff, GPS--A Guide to the Next Utility, Trimble Navigation, Ltd., Sunnyvale, Calif. (1989); Hurn, Jeff, Differential GPS Explained, Trimble Navigation Ltd., Sunnyvale, Calif. (1993); Singh, M. S. and Grewal, H. K., Autonomous Vehicle Using WADGPS, IEEE Intelligent Vehicle Symposium, September, (1995); Walter, T., et.al., Flight Trials of the Wide-Area Augmentation System (WAAS), ION GPS-94, September, (1994); Ndili, A., GPS Pseudolite Signal Design, ION GPS-94, September, (1994); Cobb, H. S., Precision Landing Tests with Improved Integrity Beacon Pseudolites, ION GPS-95, September, (1995); Walter, T. and Euge, P., Weighted RAIM for Precision Approach, ION GPS-95, September, (1995); and U.S. Pat. Nos.: Remondi U.S. Pat. No. 5,442,363; Okamoto U.S. Pat. No. 5,434,787; Dekel U.S. Pat. No. 5,430,656; Sprague U.S. Pat. No. 5,422,816; Schuchman U.S. Pat. No. 5,422,813; Penny U.S. Pat. No. 5,414,432; Smith U.S. Pat. No. 5,408,238; Gooch U.S. Pat. No. 5,396,540; Sennott U.S. Pat. No. 5,390,125; Kass U.S. Pat. No. 5,389,934; FitzGerald U.S. Pat. No. 5,382,958; Brown U.S. Pat. No. 5,379,224; Class U.S. Pat. No. 5,361,212; Allison U.S. Pat. No. 5,359,332; Bird U.S. Pat. No. 5,418,537; Izidon U.S. Pat. No. 5,325,302; Gildea U.S. Pat. No. 5,345,244; Brown U.S. Pat. No. 5,311,194; Mueller U.S. Pat. No. 5,323,322; Teare U.S. Pat. No. 5,243,652; Brown U.S. Pat. No. 5,225,842; Mansell U.S. Pat. No. 5,223,844; Geier U.S. Pat. No. 5,202,829; Bertiger U.S. Pat. No. 5,187,805; Ferguson U.S. Pat. No. 5,182,566; Hatch U.S. Pat. No. 5,177,489; Fraughton U.S. Pat. No. 5,153,836; Allison U.S. Pat. No. 5,148,179; Joguet U.S. Pat. No. 4,894,655.
The most pertinent of these GPS references are those that deal with some phase of collision avoidance technology, especially in an automobile-on-the-highway environment.
(1) Providing GPS Position Data All-weather and Inter-vehicle, Detecting/Tracking Multiple Targets, and Warning of Collision
In a system to Izidon U.S. Pat. No. 5,325,302 there is disclosed a GPS based anti-collision warning system in which each vehicle is equipped with GPS to provide location and trajectory to predict collision and warn of the same. By virtue of its ability to also receive GPS position information only from similarly equipped vehicles, as well as, for itself, Izidon provides a restricted, but nonetheless, all-weather, day/night, radar-less, and vision-less system for detecting obstacles that represent collision hazards, analyzing the target and own path and computing a trajectory for each object and self to predict a collision hazard and provide a warning to operator. Izidon discloses that fixed objects in space (land hazards) may also be stored in memory and a collision hazard therewith also warned. The reference discloses a conventional TDMA, random access, communication system using 2 ms time slices and 600 .mu.s to transmit 300 bits of data and a 200 ms cycle time enabling 100 vehicles to participate, with each vehicle receiving the GPS position data of all other vehicles. If redundant broadcasting is used, only 50 aircraft are enabled to participate, with position updates at a 10 Hz rate, which is half the 20 Hz rate at which visual images could be processed by the human eye. However, the Izidon reference fails to disclose any automatic control mechanism, and, while it specifically states that it is applicable to aircraft, sea, and land vehicles, it is, nonetheless, designed primarily for fighter aircraft and fails to disclose a GPS or other position locating system which would be sufficiently accurate or fast enough to enable it to be effectively operated in an automobile-on-the-highway environment where multiple target data with centimeter accuracy is rapidly and repeatedly required rather than the 100 m accuracy and 200 ms cycle time disclosed by Izidon.
(2) Controlling Automobile-on-the-Highway with Centimeter Accurate GPS Data, Computer Vision, Neural Networks and Adaptive Learning
In an experimental system to Singh published Sep. 25, 1995 there is described an autonomous vehicle using a wide area differential GPS system ("WADGPS") applied in a robust system that readily deals with selective availability errors, ephemeris, and satellite clock errors which Singh claims guarantees an error level of decimeter/centimeter accuracy in a ground vehicle control algorithm. Singh discloses a fully automatic ground vehicle using a digital computer control system which includes guidance, navigation, mission handling, GPS model, road model, atmospheric model, engine propulsion model, and actuator model. Singh claims the human intervention is completely eliminated by using reliable sensors/actuators to make performance collision-free and congestion-free. Additional sensors which aid the GPS calculations include dead reckoning, radar, and video camera. The vehicle transmits information about its position and velocity to other immediate participants for collision avoidance and lane changing. Singh provides centerline deviation autosteering by pulse code modulation ("PCM") and acceleration/braking control for longitudinal control using an adaptive learning system. The Singh reference is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Singh does not disclose a warning system, any type of lateral control algorithm or the use of fuzzy logic inference rule sets. Moreover, Singh points out that only one meter accuracy is all that is required for his collision avoidance control and only five meter accuracy is all that is needed for his collision avoidance of hazardous situations.
(3) Controlling Aircraft and Miscellaneous Mobile Receivers to Centimeter Accuracy
In a system by Stanford University a prototype kinematic GPS system with integrity beacon landing system ("IBLS") for aircraft provides a real-time architecture with centimeter level positioning accuracy. See, Stanford Students' Device Allows Centimeter-Accuracy GPS Landing, Air Safety Week, Oct. 24, 1994, V. 8, No. 41; Lawrence, David, A Real-Time Architecture for Kinematics GPS Applied to the Integrity Beacon Landing System, ION GPS-95, June 1995; FAA Tests DGPS River Approaches in Washington, D.C., GPS Report, Sep. 23, 1993, V. 3, No. 19; and, references cited supra, for example, articles to Cobb and Walter and patents to Hatch, Allison, Brown, and Remondi. While these references are all aircraft landing system applications, it appears that for some time centimeter accuracy has been obtainable in selected GPS ground applications where differential GPS has been employed with carrier tracking techniques. See Herring, Thomas, The Global Positioning System, Scientific America, February 1996, pgs. 44-50.
In summary, it appears that heretofore, an automobile has not been controlled to GPS-based centimeter accuracy in a fully integrated collision avoidance and warning system which detects targets in all directions, develops collision avoidance maneuvers through use of fuzzy logic inference rules and is capable of reliable automatic control in a multiple target, high speed, on-the-highway environment.
Accordingly, it is a further object of the present invention to provide such an automobile-on-the-highway collision warning control system and method which is implemented to avoid collisions between motor vehicles and/or between motor vehicles and other hazardous roadway obstacles and to warn drivers of impending collisions so that evasive action may be taken.
It is still a further object of the invention to provide such a system and method that uses GPS technology augmented by Psuedolite technology to not only accurately locate multiple vehicles on a roadway and to derive vehicle velocity and acceleration vectors for use in combination with such GPS Psuedolite augmented coordinates to determine hazardous situations and derive control and warning signals to attempt to avoid and minimize the effects of imminent collisions, but also, to provide such kinematic calculations with centimeter accuracy and in due time such that adequate corrective action may be taken.
(4) GPS Vehicle Attitude Determination
It is also known to place multiple GPS antennae on the extremities of a vehicle and, by comparing the phase differences in signals received simultaneously, determine the attitude of the vehicle relative to a reference plane in space or on the ground. See U.S. Patents as follows: Deem U.S. Pat. No. 4,384,293; Rosen U.S. Pat. No. 4,418,358; Sekine U.S. Pat. No. 4,644,358; Beier U.S. Pat. No. 4,719,469; Uematsu U.S. Pat. No. 4,994,812; Hatch U.S. Pat. No. 4,963,889; Hatch U.S. Pat. No. 5,177,489; Timothy U.S. Pat. No. 5,101,356; Ward U.S. Pat. No. 5,185,610; Timothy U.S. Pat. No. 5,406,489; Knight U.S. Pat. No. 5,296,861; Babitch U.S. Pat. No. 5,347,286; Counselman U.S. Pat. No. 4,870,422; Evans U.S. Pat. No. 4,599,620; Timothy U.S. Pat. No. 5,101,356; Knight U.S. Pat. No. 5,296,861; Babitch U.S. Pat. No. 5,347,286; Timothy U.S. Pat. No. 5,406,489. Each of these references is incorporated herein by reference. However, it remains to be fully developed, and, accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a multiple antennae, GPS based, automobile-on-the-highway, centimeter accurate, attitude determination system which not only determines the vehicle attitude at any given time, but also, generates host automobile attitude compensated warning information and host automobile attitude compensated anti-collision maneuver information which, inter ali, helps the driver get out of an unusual attitude situation, such as, a skid or spin, while taking corrective action to avoid a collision or minimize the effects of an unavoidable collision.
(5) Communicating GPS Data Inter-vehicle/Worldwide
Numerous additional GPS references disclose inter-vehicle GPS communications or GPS communications with satellites or a central control. See, for example, Popular Mechanics, November 1993 pgs. 51-52; Yashiro, Tomyuki, A Network Based on Inter-vehicle Communications, pgs. 345-350, and Aguado U.S. Pat. No. 5,438,337; Benard U.S. Pat. No. 5,119,102; Durboraw U.S. Pat. No. 5,199,504; Simms U.S. Pat. No. 5,334,974, Mansell U.S. Pat. No. 5,223,844; Gooch U.S. Pat. No. 5,396,540; Dekel U.S. Pat. No. 5,430,656; and Bertiger U.S. Pat. No. 5,187,805 each of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. However, none of the aforesaid systems provide communications as part of an integrated GPS/DGPS/LPS automobile-on-the-highway, fuzzy logic implemented, anti-collision system which transmits inter-vehicle and to central control a comprehensive set of such GPS based position and related vehicular data.
Accordingly, it is another object of the present invention is to provide GPS-based communications between vehicles and between individual vehicles and motor vehicle control centers, directly, or indirectly via an intermediate receiver, such as via a satellite, for optimum real time dissemination of vehicle location and movement vectors and related vehicular data to permit real time calculation of imminent dangerous situations.
(6) GPS and Scanning
Also of interest is Ruszkowski U.S. Pat. No. 4,949,089 which is a rifle-type laser portable target locator system housing a GPS receiver to visually bounce light off of a target and transmit the calculated target coordinates to a weapons system on a continuously updated basis to cause the weapon to collide with the target. Multiple target capabilities are included along with target recognition by visual comparison to stored data images. While a scanning type laser system, as suggested by Shaw U.S. Pat. No. 5,314,037, is possible, such a scanning system has not been suggested for use in a congested on-the-road automotive environment involving handling multiple targets simultaneously. Each of these references are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. Accordingly, it is another object of the present invention to scan multiple targets in a congested automobile-on-the-highway, locate the position of the host automobile and relevant targets in GPS coordinates and transmit that data inter-vehicle and to a fixed control center for use in an anti-collision and warning system.
(7) Controlling Other Automobile-on-the-Highway Apparatuses From GPS Data
It is also known that certain ones of automotive control apparatuses and mechanisms may be operated based on a GPS position calculation, such as, in Capurka U.S. Pat. No. 5,247,440 which preferably operates vehicle lights based on local lighting rules, but could operate other vehicle systems, as well, as a result of certain performance parameters, such as, temperature, altitude, relative humidity. Of a similar nature is Dekel U.S. Pat. No. 5,430,656 which operates engine, steering, transmission, windows, doors, or air conditioning as a result of GPS location automatically transmitted by stolen vehicles to a central station or another vehicle. Dekel's operation, however, is of a limited nature and for a limited purpose. Each of these references are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
Accordingly, it is a further object of the present invention to use an apparatus and method which broadly uses GPS based data to operate a plurality of host automobile systems in an improved automobile-on-the-highway collision avoidance and warning system.
C. Conventional Multiple Target Detection and Tracking Systems for Making Automobile-On-The-Road Collision